Douglas Alexander now agrees with Dave on Europe: how will this play with Tory backbenchers?

For a guide to how attitudes on Europe have shifted over the last year or so, Douglas Alexander's article in today's Guardian (and the accompanying trail of his speech, to be given later today), is essential reading. The shadow foreign secretary, a one-time Brownite, had been seen as a loud Europhile. This morning, however, he appears to have abandoned the last Europhile principles of Labour. Here's the key section:

The Conservatives have stated that repatriation is their priority. They seem worryingly complacent about the prospect of a two-speed Europe – an outcome that Conservative and Labour foreign secretaries have spent decades opposing. Such a development would pose fundamental risks to our interests within the single market.

We should engage now with the fact that Germany is seeking treaty change and seize this opportunity to safeguard the rights of non-euro members. The present balance of powers can be considered, but to suggest that repatriation should be Britain's overriding priority – and to start negotiations by threatening vetoes – reveals a government that misreads present risks and realities. A hard-headed view of Britain's national interests should be the hallmark of our approach to the coming negotiations.

As Patrick Wintour reports, this is a "major rethink" of Labour's European policy, not least because it views "any treaty change sought by Germany in response to the euro crisis as a legitimate occasion to look at the balance of powers between Europe and nation states". Powers must not be transferred to Brussels on principle, but only if doing so can be justified by economic need. Labour's commitment to join the euro "eventually", which has caused Ed Miliband so much discomfort at PMQs, is finally abandoned. Alexander now argues that we are in Europe for no reason other than for access to (and influence over) the single market.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised: Labour was brought over to the European cause almost as dramatically over the summer of 1988, after Jacques Delors gave a speech to the TUC arguing that Europe could be for workers. Ed Balls' euroscepticism has been an open Westminster secret for years. But new or not, this brings Labour's official position almost exactly to where the Conservative Party leadership is. Only the Liberal Democrats are left to argue the European ideal and even they are close to silent on euro membership. Nick Clegg used a visit to Brussels last week to sheepishly suggest that Britain might have more power over fisheries laws and employment rights; it's not exactly idealism.

For David Cameron, this perhaps ought to be welcome. He can look like a centrist, fighting against the dogmatic, extremists of his party. Despite all, the public is still not especially interested by Europe. While 45 per cent of people think that Britain's membership is a bad thing, only 3 per cent of people count Europe as an important issue. Standing up to his party on Europe reassures voters that the Prime Minister is a pragmatic man, trying to solve Britain's problems now. Curiously enough, pragmatism is popular, at least where jobs are on the line.